What comes to mind when you think about branding?
A logo?
A colour palette?
Maybe a font?
It’s easy to see why people don’t understand branding. Because branding is not just a logo. It’s a recipe for how you can build and grow a consistent business that people trust.
Logos, and the way a brand looks, are just the surface layer. Branding actually goes a lot deeper.
In fact, the most important parts are the bits that people ‘feel’ rather than ‘see’.
Without strong branding, businesses often feel inconsistent, forgettable and difficult to trust — even when they provide brilliant products or services.
When you get branding right it becomes an incredibly powerful tool for helping you to build a solid business that people trust and want to work with. And it underpins every proactive decision you make in your business growth.
So, how can we make it work for us?
In Season Three of the ‘Everyday’s A Business School Day’ podcast, Nicky Thomas (Founder of The Growth Community) and James Marriott (Podcast Expert and Founder of Sound Media) sat down with Brand Specialist, Clare Froggatt from We Brew Your Brand, to delve into what branding actually is and how it can positively impact every part of your business.
This blog covers outputs from that podcast session (including Clare’s homework!) but you can also listen to the podcast on Spotify or wherever you like to enjoy them
Quick Article Summary
Branding is far more than a logo or colour palette. In this article, inspired by the Everyday’s A Business School Day podcast featuring branding specialist Clare Froggatt, we explore how branding helps businesses build trust through consistency, authenticity and clear values. The article covers what branding really means, why business values matter, how branding evolves over time, and the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand. It also explains how small business branding influences customer trust, recruitment, communication and long-term growth.
Branding is the Feeling People Get From Your Business
One of the big points that Clare made during the conversation was:
“Your brand is the feeling or experience people get when interacting with your business.”
So pretty important, right?
It covers all kinds of things such as:
- Your Communication
- Your Customer Experience
- Your Tone of Voice
- Your Consistency
- Your Values
- (even the way you show off your personal brand in networking rooms or on social media!)
A logo is what springs to mind when we mention branding. And of course it matters because it is the identity and visual shortcut to your wider customer experience. But customers don’t just remember what your business looks like – they remember how it felt interacting with you. And that’s what brings them back for more.
So, your branding needs to go way beyond a logo you knocked up on Canva!
Why Most Small Businesses Misunderstand Branding
When we’re starting out in business there are 101 things we need to learn and do.
During our chat with Clare, we acknowledged that most small businesses tend to come from one of two camps:
- Creative people who enjoy marketing and communication
- Analytical types who focus on systems, operations and numbers
If you’re not from a marketing background, then branding probably feels like a dark art to you and certainly not something you are ready to get your head around when the priorities are sales and cashflow!
Most small businesses start their branding journey by knocking together a logo on Canva and deciding on a few colours that they like – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Branding tends to become more of a priority as the business evolves. But it’s important not to overlook it for too long if you want to build a business brand that people trust and want to work with.
Branding and Trust Go Hand in Hand
During the episode we talked a lot about Trust.
When we think about brands that we trust, they all have some key things in common:
Their communication is really consistent
They are instantly recognisable
They have a very clear personality
And they always deliver a predictable experience
As Clare shares in the podcast, branding is what pulls all of those trust signals together into one recognisable experience and it’s definitely more than just your logo!
And if you need any additional motivation…strong small business branding helps customers feel more confident choosing you over your competitors.
Why Values Shape Your Brand More than Your Colour Palette
What ties all of those trust signals together are values. And this topic became one of the biggest talking points of the episode.
Taking time in your first year of business to identify your business values will help you more effectively build a business that people believe to be trustworthy. It will also help you to drill down on who your target audience actually is and how you serve them.
When your branding reflects this, something really powerful happens. You start attracting the right people who appreciate what you do, enjoy working with you and refer you to more of the right people.
Then your business starts to feel way more aligned with its purpose and the needs of your customers… and you’ll actually find working in it way more enjoyable!
What are Business Values (and why do they matter)?
Business values are the beliefs and principles that shape how your business behaves.
They influence:
- How you communicate
- How you treat customers
- How you make business decisions
- The kind of people you choose to work with
- The kind of culture you want to create
Essentially, they provide a north star for how your business operates and how it chooses to grow.
Often business values stem from the personal values of its Founder and it’s important that they feel natural and authentic so that the people in your business feel comfortable with living and breathing them.
There are hundreds of different elements that might feel valuable to your business such as:
- Collaboration
- Honesty
- Creativity
- Simplicity
- Reliability
- Community
- Innovation
- Kindness
But values only matter if they are consistently visible in the way you actually run your business.
That means:
- The way you speak to people
- The clients you take on
- The suppliers you choose
- The way you solve problems
- The experience customers have with you
- The way you recruit people to join your team
During the podcast conversation, one of the most interesting points we explored was how values quietly shape almost every part of a business — from marketing and networking to recruitment and customer retention.
When your values are clear, branding becomes much easier because your messaging, tone and decisions start to feel more consistent and aligned.
And ultimately, that consistency is what helps businesses build trust with their target audience.
How Your Branding Should Evolve as Your Business Grows
Another big discussion point was the idea that branding is not static – that your brand should move with you as your business evolves.
As Clare said, many businesses feel they need to get their branding nailed down in one go. But with growth comes change. You’ll naturally find a more comfortable niche as time moves on. And you may even find that your customer base or service changes dramatically.
Clare explained that this is all very normal and at this point a business can choose to do a brand refresh or a rebrand.
Most of the time a simple refresh is enough, while a rebrand is only required when there has been fundamental change to the positioning and identity of the business.
But it’s definitely worth reviewing the brand every couple of years to ensure that it is still aligned with your business growth.
Brand Authenticity Is Really Valuable (and really matters)
In a world where polished AI content is becoming more and more prevalent, one of the really interesting topics of discussion was around having an authentic brand.
People buy from people and they connect with businesses that feel human.
It’s not just about having framed values on the wall of the office. It’s real values that you and the people in your business can demonstrate in the way you do business. And in the session we talked about making our values into verbs that people resonate with better.
For example: ‘integrity’ feels a bit corporate, but “Doing What You Said You’d Do’ feels actionable and human.
It’s also about having a clear tone of voice and personality.
Business that build the strongest brands are often the ones that are brave enough to show who they ‘really are’ instead of trying to be like everybody else.
So, How Can a Strong Brand Help Us Build a Business People Trust?
A big take away from the podcast was that branding isn’t just a marketing thing.
It influences every part of your business including:
- Recruitment
- Customer Relationships
- Business Culture
- Long Term Growth
- Sales and Marketing decisions
In a nutshell, branding creates clarity and direction.
And clarity helps people to trust you.
So, yes logos, colours and fonts play a part, but a strong overall focus on consistency, authenticity and real business values are what truly builds a business that people can trust.
Clare’s Simple Brand Exercise For Small Businesses
At the end of the episode (as is customary on the Everyday’s A Business School Day podcast), Clare gave the listeners a piece of homework – to carry out a simple brand audit.
Start by reviewing:
Your website
Your emails
Your Social Media
Your Printed Materials
Your Messaging
Then ask yourself the following questions:
Does this feel consistent
Does it reflect who we are now
How does our communication sound. Does it sound natural and authentic?
Do we have a consistent tone of voice
Does our visual identity feel connected?
Often just making improvements to consistency can have a big impact without having to start again.
Building a strong brand doesn’t happen overnight.
But when your values, messaging, visuals and customer experience are all on the same page, something really powerful happens: people recognise and trust you.
And that’s an exciting and lucrative opportunity to differentiate yourself in a noisy marketplace.
Branding FAQs
What is branding in business?
Branding is the overall experience people have when interacting with your business. It includes your logo, messaging, tone of voice, customer experience, values and consistency.
Why is branding important for small businesses?
Strong branding helps small businesses build trust, attract the right customers, create consistency and stand out in crowded markets.
Is branding just a logo?
No. A logo is only one small part of branding. Branding also includes how your business communicates, behaves and makes customers feel.
How does branding build trust?
Branding builds trust through consistency. When customers consistently experience the same tone, values and quality from a business, they feel more confident buying from it.
What are business values?
Business values are the beliefs and principles that guide how a business behaves, communicates and grows. They influence customer experience, culture and decision-making.
What’s the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?
A brand refresh improves or modernises existing branding elements, while a rebrand involves a more significant change to a company’s identity, positioning or direction.
How often should you review your branding?
Most businesses should review their branding every couple of years to ensure it still reflects their business growth, audience and positioning.
Further Resources
This blog is based on an episode which is part of Season Three of Everyday’s A Business School Day podcast. You can listen to move episodes on Spotify or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
Why not have a read of some of our other blogs in our library.
Identify the right networking format for you
Decide if networking groups are worth the effort
How to get the most out of your 121s
Ways you can build trust with your connections
Learn more about Growth Community member only meetings
Why member only meetings add value to membership
Try some Growth Community relaxed but very purposeful networking?
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